I believe Cowon finally started to support gapless playback. I would be interested to hear how well this is implemented. Is it seamless? Truly gapless? This unit is really starting to interest me!

Don't quote me but I believe with some firmware revs, the S9 supports gapless. Then again, I'm admittedly basing that on hearsay and articles and not from experience, and I can say from experience the Zune 80 does NOT do gapless even after a supposed rev that supports it.

Anyway, I'll chime as soon as I know. Tracking shows I'll receive my 32GB next Wednesday. I'll run it through the gapless FLAC gauntlet (Between The Buried And Me, Colors is particularly harsh on players).

I have a Zune HD and though I like its sound sig over my iTouch it doesn't do gapless which is annoying. The Zune HD is close to being the PMP for me but it just falls short in a few key areas for me. The J3, so far, looks like it answers all my qualms with the iTouch and the Zune HD.

I have a Zune HD and though I like its sound sig over my iTouch it doesn't do gapless which is annoying. The Zune HD is close to being the PMP for me but it just falls short in a few key areas for me. The J3, so far, looks like it answers all my qualms with the iTouch and the Zune HD.

Looking forward to hearing more impressions!

Man, I hear you loud and clear. I'm in the same annoying boat. I love me Zune 80 (and purchased it with the dangling carrot of future gapless... it doesn't even do lossless) thought I'd upgrade to the HD but then thought better of it. I hope the J3 is my answer. Unbelievably, my Clip+ does gapless. Go figure. I'll post some solid impressions when I can.

i dont know what is the advantage of zune over Cowon J3 besides the wifi

the price of second hand is also very drop

Good point on both counts. The only advantage that comes to mind is possibly build quality, but I haven't held a J3 so we'll see. I couldn't care less about WiFi and marketplace integration? Meh. But I'm tired of being married to the Zune sync software, irritated at the lack of gapless, and downright pissed off at the lossless FAIL - even with its proprietary format!!

I wish Amazon would have the 32gb version of the J3 already....Jetmall only ships to your billing address and go figure I am @ school right now and my billing address is my parents house...FML

Hey Xephyr,

I thought so too, but I'm a persistent pain in the a**. ;) Have no fear. On JetMall, before you get to the last page during the purchase process, there's a "notes" section. Inform them of your alternate shipping address. That's what I did and my UPS tracking data reflects the correct address. Just in case, I opened a support ticket (I said I was a PITA :)) to have them confirm the address change.

That is all I needed to hear, thanks!! ^_^ Too bad its the weekend so I will have to wait till next week to order :<

BTW I see that you also have the Shure SE530, got any recommendation on a portable amp for them? I was thinking of using my SE530 on the J3 when I get it. Been thinking of getting the Fiio E5 and see where I can go from there...

That is all I needed to hear, thanks!! ^_^ Too bad its the weekend so I will have to wait till next week to order :<

BTW I see that you also have the Shure SE530, got any recommendation on a portable amp for them? I was thinking of using my SE530 on the J3 when I get it. Been thinking of getting the Fiio E5 and see where I can go from there...

You bet!!

Woah, man. Hold off on the Fiio. Head on over to this thread. If you can wait (And you should, and it shouldn't be too painful ;) as the J3 will drive your Shures just fine) order the Arrow HE12. It's brilliant. It's all I ever wanted and need from a portable amp. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, and it's versatile enough to drive your SE530s and relatively demanding cans like the 300Ohm Sennheisers. It's breathed life into my SE530s. Plenty of bass now and much crisper highs. Mids still kick me in the family.

But don't just take my word for it (or the others on this site). Check out dfkt's comprehensive review over at ABI. And he can be ruthless on gear. You're about to suffer a cash leakage. Sorry.

So you are saying the J3 w/out an amp should work fine with the SE530?? If so, I will save up for the HE12. I was planning on getting it eventually but if you think the Fiio E5 won't make a huge difference, I will save my $20 for something else ^_^.

BTW, do you have any recommendation on a decent budget IC cable to hook the amp with the J3??

So you are saying the J3 w/out an amp should work fine with the SE530?? If so, I will save up for the HE12. I was planning on getting it eventually but if you think the Fiio E5 won't make a huge difference, I will save my $20 for something else ^_^.

BTW, do you have any recommendation on a decent budget IC cable to hook the amp with the J3??

I am. I'll let you know, but the Cowons are quality with plenty of power output. (not that the SE530s need power) Save your money and check out dfkt's comparison comments.

I lurked the DIY cable forum on this site and ended up building my own out of CryoParts bits for around $45. But I believe Canare has a reasonably priced quality mini-mini IC, and check out parts-express.com.

I have had my 32GB J3 for a couple days and am loving the SQ, which is better than my iPod video with a lineout and a nuforce mobile amp I think. I've listened with Grado SR80i and Bang & Olufsen A8s and have been very pleased.

I haven't run the battery all the way down but it's concerning me because after certainly less than 10 hours of listening and browsing etc it says the battery is at 25%. I've noticed the increments go 25-50-75-100 with nothing in between so I don't know exactly what "25%" means. What have others experienced so far in terms of the battery life? I guess I did watch a 30 minute high quality video so that might explain some of the drain?